Forgotten Victim - Helen H. Durrant

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

The decomposed remains of a body are found entombed in the depths of a disused Manchester cotton mill. Detective Rachel King is called in to investigate the grisly discovery.
IF NO ONE KNOWS THE VICTIM, HOW CAN YOU CATCH THE KILLER?
With gunshot wounds to the knees, this was no accident. This was murder. But the question is: was this a gangland killing or a murder motivated by a deadly secret closer to home?
With the help of DS Elwyn Price, Rachel must follow the evidence where it takes her. But who can she trust? And who in this notorious area knows more than they’re admitting to?
Meanwhile, Rachel has a huge secret of her own. How long can she keep her pregnancy from her colleagues before she has to face up to the reality of her relationship with the shadowy character Jed McAteer?
Can Rachel uncover the dark secrets of the past and catch the killer — before anyone else dies?

My Thoughts:

I’ve enjoyed all of the DCI Rachel King books so far. I always say that they get straight on with the action, and there are no wasted words on recapping the past books. It is one of the things I have enjoyed in the past about this series. However, this one simply wasn’t as good and had lost the perfect formula.
The crime itself was fascinating as always, but I felt like not enough of the time was devoted to this side of the story, and there was too much else going on. Rachel has her personal life with her kids and Alan (who appears to have had a complete personality change). There is her on-and-off-again relationship with Jed, and then there is another aspect added with her parent’s death from years ago. So much was being covered that it all felt rushed, and there wasn’t the time to really delve into any aspect enough for it to feel as if it were a fully-formed story.
Elwyn was being very annoying and kept repeating the same thing over and over. Rachel was trying to concentrate on the investigation, but he kept blathering on at her to sort her personal dramas out. It became monotonous. The storyline with her parent’s death felt tacked on; I’m not sure if it is a leading story for future books, but it just didn’t flow or make much sense.
The ending of the book was very rushed, and the investigation was wrapped up in record time and without much of a flourish. I was very disappointed.
This is the second Helen H. Durrant book I have read in the past couple of months, and I’m afraid her quality of writing has dropped somewhat. After the previous bad experience, I was sceptical about reading this one, but I thought I’d be safe with the Rachel King series once again as I’d enjoyed them in the past. However, I’ve decided not to read any more of this author’s books as I’m just not enjoying them anymore.

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